Juan Alonso
Vance D. and Arlene C. Coffman Professor and the James and Anna Marie Spilker Chair of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Bio
Prof. Alonso is the founder and director of the Aerospace Design Laboratory (ADL) where he specializes in the development of high-fidelity computational design methodologies to enable the creation of realizable and efficient aerospace systems. Prof. Alonso’s research involves a large number of different manned and unmanned applications including transonic, supersonic, and hypersonic aircraft, helicopters, turbomachinery, and launch and re-entry vehicles. He is the author of over 200 technical publications on the topics of computational aircraft and spacecraft design, multi-disciplinary optimization, fundamental numerical methods, and high-performance parallel computing. Prof. Alonso is keenly interested in the development of an advanced curriculum for the training of future engineers and scientists and has participated actively in course-development activities in both the Aeronautics & Astronautics Department (particularly in the development of coursework for aircraft design, sustainable aviation, and UAS design and operation) and for the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME) at Stanford University. He was a member of the team that currently holds the world speed record for human powered vehicles over water. A student team led by Prof. Alonso also holds the altitude record for an unmanned electric vehicle under 5 lbs of mass.
Administrative Appointments
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Member, SoE Future Committee (2015 - 2016)
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Director, NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program Office (2006 - 2008)
Honors & Awards
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AHS Forum Best Paper Award, Aircraft Design, American Helicopter Society (2018)
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AIAA SciTech Best Paper Award, Thermophysics Technical Committee, AIAA (2014)
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NASA Aeronautics Associate Administrator Award for High-Fidelity Tool Validation for Sonic Boom, NASA (2014)
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AIAA Associate Fellow, AIAA (2012)
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FAI Altitude World Record, Class U, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Electric category, FAI (2010)
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NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal, NASA (2009)
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AIAA Best Paper Award, Multi-Disciplinary Optimization Conferences, AIAA (2004, 2006, 2008)
Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations
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Member, NASA Advisory Council (2005 - 2006)
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Member, Sec. of Transp. Future of Aviation Advisory Council (2010 - 2011)
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Member, FAA Management Advisory Council (2011 - 2014)
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Member, FAA Drone Advisory Council (2016 - 2018)
Professional Education
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PhD, Princeton University, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (1997)
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M.A., Princeton University, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (1993)
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B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Aeronautics & Astronautics (1991)
Patents
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Juan J. Alonso, Andre S. Chan, Ferdinand Hendriks. "United States Patent 7,177,116 System, Method, and Apparatus for Breaking Up Large-Scale Eddies and Straightening Air Flow Inside Rotary Disk Storage Devices", Sep 1, 2005
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Juan J. Alonso, Andre S. Chan, Ferdinand Hendriks. "United States Patent 7,946,691 System, Method, and Apparatus for Applying Boundary Layer Manipulation Techniques to the Air Flow Inside Rotary Disk Storage Devices", Sep 1, 2005
2024-25 Courses
- Applied Aerodynamics
AA 200 (Win) - Atmospheric Flight
AA 141 (Spr) -
Independent Studies (7)
- Directed Research and Writing in Aero/Astro
AA 190 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Independent Research and Study
PHYSICS 190 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Independent Study in Aero/Astro
AA 199 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Practical Training
AA 191 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Practical Training
AA 291 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Problems in Aero/Astro
AA 290 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Senior Thesis Research
PHYSICS 205 (Aut, Win, Spr)
- Directed Research and Writing in Aero/Astro
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Prior Year Courses
2023-24 Courses
- Aircraft Design
AA 146A (Win) - Aircraft Design Laboratory
AA 146B (Spr)
2022-23 Courses
- Aircraft Design
AA 146A (Aut) - Aircraft Design Laboratory
AA 146B (Win) - Seminar in Fluid Mechanics
ENGR 298 (Spr) - Sustainable Aviation
AA 260 (Spr)
- Aircraft Design
Stanford Advisees
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Doctoral Dissertation Reader (AC)
John Alora, Faisal As'ad, Efaine Chang, Loren Newton, Tal Schwartz, David Wu -
Doctoral Dissertation Advisor (AC)
Aurelien Ghiglino, Brian Munguía, Yiren Shen -
Orals Evaluator
Joshua Ott -
Master's Program Advisor
Ulysse Lemoine, Shane Tokishi, Benjamin Whiffen, Andy Wu -
Doctoral (Program)
Arjun Shah
All Publications
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A large-scale validation study of aircraft noise modeling for airport arrivals.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
2024; 155 (3): 1928-1949
Abstract
In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration's Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) is approved to predict the impacts of aircraft noise and emissions. AEDT's critical role in regulatory compliance and evaluating the environmental impacts of aviation requires asking how accurate are its noise predictions. Previous studies suggest that AEDT's predictions lack desired accuracy. This paper reports on a large-scale study, using 200 000 flight trajectories paired with measured sound levels for arrivals to Runways 28L/28R at San Francisco International Airport, over 12 months. For each flight, two AEDT studies were run, one using the approved mode for regulatory filing and the other using an advanced non-regulatory mode with exact aircraft trajectories. AEDT's per aircraft noise predictions were compared with curated measured sound levels at two locations. On average, AEDT underestimated LAmax by -3.09dB and SEL by -2.04dB, combining the results from both AEDT noise-modeling modes. Discrepancies appear to result from limitations in the physical modeling of flight trajectories and noise generation, combined with input data uncertainties (aircraft weight, airspeed, thrust, and lift configuration) and atmospheric conditions.
View details for DOI 10.1121/10.0025276
View details for PubMedID 38466043
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Accelerating the Lattice Boltzmann Method
IEEE. 2023
View details for DOI 10.1109/AERO55745.2023.10115537
View details for Web of Science ID 001008282000007
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Convex Optimization of Low Observability Hypersonic Vehicles
IEEE. 2023
View details for DOI 10.1109/AERO55745.2023.10115785
View details for Web of Science ID 001008282003024
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Forecasting the Operational Lifetime of Battery-Powered Electric Aircraft
JOURNAL OF AIRCRAFT
2022
View details for DOI 10.2514/1.C036851
View details for Web of Science ID 000811444900001
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A universal velocity profile for turbulent wall flows including adverse pressure gradient boundary layers
JOURNAL OF FLUID MECHANICS
2021; 933
View details for DOI 10.1017/jfm.2021.998
View details for Web of Science ID 000733929300001
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Parametric Study of Nonequilibrium Shock Interference Patterns over a Fuselage-and-Wing Conceptual Vehicle
AIAA JOURNAL
2021; 59 (12): 4905-4916
View details for DOI 10.2514/1.J060470
View details for Web of Science ID 000800025200007
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Comparing Multi-Element Airfoil Flow Solutions Using Multiple Solvers with Output-Based Adapted Meshes
AIAA JOURNAL
2021
View details for DOI 10.2514/1.J060861
View details for Web of Science ID 000721179800001
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Lithium-Ion Battery Modeling for Aerospace Applications
JOURNAL OF AIRCRAFT
2021; 58 (6): 1323-1335
View details for DOI 10.2514/1.C036209
View details for Web of Science ID 000728112400011
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SU2-NEMO: An Open-Source Framework for High-Mach Nonequilibrium Multi-Species Flows
AEROSPACE
2021; 8 (7)
View details for DOI 10.3390/aerospace8070193
View details for Web of Science ID 000675963600001
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Shock interactions in inviscid air and CO2-N-2 flows in thermochemical non-equilibrium
SHOCK WAVES
2021; 31 (3): 239-253
View details for DOI 10.1007/s00193-021-00999-8
View details for Web of Science ID 000649208100001
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Design exploration and optimization under uncertainty
PHYSICS OF FLUIDS
2020; 32 (8)
View details for DOI 10.1063/5.0020858
View details for Web of Science ID 000563493800001
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Investigating Performance Losses in High-Level Synthesis for Stencil Computations
IEEE COMPUTER SOC. 2020: 195–203
View details for DOI 10.1109/FCCM48280.2020.00034
View details for Web of Science ID 000609774900025
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Application of DDES to Iced Airfoil in Stanford University Unstructured (SU2)
SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG. 2020: 283–93
View details for DOI 10.1007/978-3-030-27607-2_23
View details for Web of Science ID 000634530900023
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MULTI-FIDELITY MODELING OF PROBABILISTIC AERODYNAMIC DATABASES FOR USE IN AEROSPACE ENGINEERING
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR UNCERTAINTY QUANTIFICATION
2020; 10 (5): 425–47
View details for DOI 10.1615/Int.J.UncertaintyQuantification.2020032841
View details for Web of Science ID 000599515600003
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A Simple and Robust Shock-Capturing Approach for Discontinuous Galerkin Discretizations
ENERGIES
2019; 12 (14)
View details for DOI 10.3390/en12142651
View details for Web of Science ID 000478999400011
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Polynomial chaos to efficiently compute the annual energy production in wind farm layout optimization
WIND ENERGY SCIENCE
2019; 4 (2): 211–31
View details for DOI 10.5194/wes-4-211-2019
View details for Web of Science ID 000467416300001
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Uncertainty Estimation Module for Turbulence Model Predictions in SU2
AIAA JOURNAL
2019; 57 (3): 1066–77
View details for DOI 10.2514/1.J057187
View details for Web of Science ID 000459609400016
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CUPyDO - An integrated Python environment for coupled fluid-structure simulations
ADVANCES IN ENGINEERING SOFTWARE
2019; 128: 69–85
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.advengsoft.2018.05.007
View details for Web of Science ID 000465951900006
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Sequential Reliability-Based Design Optimization via Anchored Decomposition
AIAA Scitech 2019 Forum
AIAA. 2019
View details for DOI 10.2514/6.2019-0723
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Strategies for Posing a Well-Defined Problem for Urban Air Mobility Vehicles
AIAA Scitech 2019 Forum
AIAA. 2019
View details for DOI 10.2514/6.2019-0818
- Primary Weight Estimation for eVTOLs via Explicit Analysis and Surrogate Regression AIAA Aviation 2019 Forum AIAA. 2019
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Flow and noise predictions around tandem cylinders using DDES approach with SU2
AIAA Scitech 2019 Forum
AIAA. 2019
View details for DOI 10.2514/6.2019-0326
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Shock-Induced Separation Suppression Using CFD-Based Active Flow Control Optimization
AIAA Scitech 2019 Forum
AIAA. 2019
View details for DOI 10.2514/6.2019-0695
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Simple shock detector for discontinuous Galerkin method
AIAA Scitech 2019 Forum
AIAA. 2019
View details for DOI 10.2514/6.2019-0584
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Transonic flow analysis with discontinuous Galerkin method in SU2 DG-FEM solver
AIAA Aviation 2019 Forum
AIAA. 2019
View details for DOI 10.2514/6.2019-3425
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Current Capabilities and Challenges of NDARC and SUAVE for eVTOL Aircraft Design and Analysis
Matthew Clarke
American Institute for Aeronautics & Astronautics . 2019
View details for DOI 10.2514/6.2019-4505
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Connecting Flow over Complex Terrain to Hydrodynamic Roughness on a Coral Reef
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY
2018; 48 (7): 1567–87
View details for DOI 10.1175/JPO-D-18-0013.1
View details for Web of Science ID 000438704600001
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STAGGERED STRONG COUPLING BETWEEN EXISTING FLUID AND SOLID SOLVERS THROUGH A PYTHON INTERFACE FOR FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION PROBLEMS
INT CENTER NUMERICAL METHODS ENGINEERING. 2017: 645–60
View details for Web of Science ID 000426876100059
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Performance optimizations for scalable implicit RANS calculations with SU2
COMPUTERS & FLUIDS
2016; 129: 146-158
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.compfluid.2016.02.003
View details for Web of Science ID 000374613100011
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SU2: An Open-Source Suite for Multiphysics Simulation and Design
AIAA JOURNAL
2016; 54 (3): 828-846
View details for DOI 10.2514/1.J053813
View details for Web of Science ID 000375425800004
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Unsteady Continuous Adjoint Approach for Aerodynamic Design on Dynamic Meshes
AIAA JOURNAL
2015; 53 (9): 2437-2453
View details for DOI 10.2514/1.J053763
View details for Web of Science ID 000359983400002
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Enabling the environmentally clean air transportation of the future: a vision of computational fluid dynamics in 2030
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY A-MATHEMATICAL PHYSICAL AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES
2014; 372 (2022)
View details for DOI 10.1098/rsta.2013.0317
View details for Web of Science ID 000338844700002
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Enabling the environmentally clean air transportation of the future: a vision of computational fluid dynamics in 2030.
Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
2014; 372 (2022)
Abstract
As global air travel expands rapidly to meet demand generated by economic growth, it is essential to continue to improve the efficiency of air transportation to reduce its carbon emissions and address concerns about climate change. Future transports must be 'cleaner' and designed to include technologies that will continue to lower engine emissions and reduce community noise. The use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) will be critical to enable the design of these new concepts. In general, the ability to simulate aerodynamic and reactive flows using CFD has progressed rapidly during the past several decades and has fundamentally changed the aerospace design process. Advanced simulation capabilities not only enable reductions in ground-based and flight-testing requirements, but also provide added physical insight, and enable superior designs at reduced cost and risk. In spite of considerable success, reliable use of CFD has remained confined to a small region of the operating envelope due, in part, to the inability of current methods to reliably predict turbulent, separated flows. Fortunately, the advent of much more powerful computing platforms provides an opportunity to overcome a number of these challenges. This paper summarizes the findings and recommendations from a recent NASA-funded study that provides a vision for CFD in the year 2030, including an assessment of critical technology gaps and needed development, and identifies the key CFD technology advancements that will enable the design and development of much cleaner aircraft in the future.
View details for DOI 10.1098/rsta.2013.0317
View details for PubMedID 25024413
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4095895
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PDE-constrained optimization with error estimation and control
JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS
2014; 263: 136-150
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jcp.2013.12.050
View details for Web of Science ID 000331716900008
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Helicopter Rotor Design Using a Time-Spectral and Adjoint-Based Method
JOURNAL OF AIRCRAFT
2014; 51 (2): 412-423
View details for DOI 10.2514/1.C031975
View details for Web of Science ID 000333798200006
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Using Supervised Learning to Improve Monte Carlo Integral Estimation
AIAA JOURNAL
2013; 51 (8): 2015-2023
View details for DOI 10.2514/1.J051655
View details for Web of Science ID 000322557400019
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Robust Grid Adaptation for Efficient Uncertainty Quantification
AIAA JOURNAL
2012; 50 (7): 1538-1546
View details for DOI 10.2514/1.J051379
View details for Web of Science ID 000306096400009
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Risk Assessment of Scramjet Unstart Using Adjoint-Based Sampling Methods
AIAA JOURNAL
2012; 50 (3): 581-592
View details for DOI 10.2514/1.J051264
View details for Web of Science ID 000301204700007
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Multidisciplinary Optimization with Applications to Sonic-Boom Minimization
ANNUAL REVIEW OF FLUID MECHANICS, VOL 44
2012; 44: 505-526
View details for DOI 10.1146/annurev-fluid-120710-101133
View details for Web of Science ID 000304647800021
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Prediction of Helicopter Rotor Loads Using Time-Spectral Computational Fluid Dynamics and an Exact Fluid-Structure Interface
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN HELICOPTER SOCIETY
2011; 56 (4)
View details for DOI 10.4050/JAHS.56.042001
View details for Web of Science ID 000296912100001
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Design of Adjoint-Based Laws for Wing Flutter Control
JOURNAL OF AIRCRAFT
2011; 48 (1): 331-335
View details for DOI 10.2514/1.C031005
View details for Web of Science ID 000287227200031
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Toward optimally seeded airflow on hypersonic vehicles using control theory
COMPUTERS & FLUIDS
2010; 39 (9): 1562-1574
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.compfluid.2010.05.009
View details for Web of Science ID 000284747100013
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Numerical and Mesh Resolution Requirements for Accurate Sonic Boom Prediction
AIAA 42nd Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit
AMER INST AERONAUT ASTRONAUT. 2009: 1126–39
View details for DOI 10.2514/1.34367
View details for Web of Science ID 000268906100005
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Two-Level Multifidelity Design Optimization Studies for Supersonic Jets
AIAA 43rd Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit
AMER INST AERONAUT ASTRONAUT. 2009: 776–90
View details for DOI 10.2514/1.34362
View details for Web of Science ID 000266894200005
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Aircraft design optimization
6th Pan-American Workshop on Applied and Computational Mathematics
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV. 2009: 1948–58
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.matcom.2007.07.001
View details for Web of Science ID 000264093700013
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ADJoint: An approach for the rapid development of discrete adjoint solvers
AIAA/ISSMO 11th Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference
AMER INST AERONAUT ASTRONAUT. 2008: 863–73
View details for DOI 10.2514/1.29123
View details for Web of Science ID 000254658300006
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Multifidelity design optimization of low-boom supersonic sets
AIAA/ISSMO 10th Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference
AMER INST AERONAUT ASTRONAUT. 2008: 106–18
View details for DOI 10.2514/1.28948
View details for Web of Science ID 000252820400013
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A methodology for the development of discrete adjoint solvers using automatic differentiation tools
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS
2007; 21 (9-10): 307-327
View details for DOI 10.1080/10618560701678647
View details for Web of Science ID 000252315400001
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Integrated computations of an entire jet engine
52nd ASME Turbo Expo 2007
AMER SOC MECHANICAL ENGINEERS. 2007: 1841–1847
View details for Web of Science ID 000249599300170
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Demonstration of nonlinear frequency domain methods
AIAA JOURNAL
2006; 44 (7): 1428-1435
View details for DOI 10.2514/1.15127
View details for Web of Science ID 000239046300006
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An adjoint method for the calculation of remote sensitivities in supersonic flow
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS
2006; 20 (2): 61-74
View details for DOI 10.1080/10618560600638114
View details for Web of Science ID 000239567000001
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Unsteady CFD simulation of an entire gas turbine high-spool
51st ASME Turbo Expo 2006
AMER SOC MECHANICAL ENGINEERS. 2006: 1931–1939
View details for Web of Science ID 000242494000182
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A framework for coupling Reynolds-averaged with large-eddy simulations for gas turbine applications
JOURNAL OF FLUIDS ENGINEERING-TRANSACTIONS OF THE ASME
2005; 127 (4): 806-815
View details for DOI 10.1115/1.1994877
View details for Web of Science ID 000231839800021
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A coupled-adjoint sensitivity analysis method for high-fidelity aero-structural design
OPTIMIZATION AND ENGINEERING
2005; 6 (1): 33-62
View details for Web of Science ID 000227173200004
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Integrated simulations of a compressor/combustor assembly of a gas turbine engine
50th ASME Turbo-Expo 2005
AMER SOC MECHANICAL ENGINEERS. 2005: 971–982
View details for Web of Science ID 000242493400089
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Prediction of high-pressure turbine main-/secondary-air system flow interaction
JOURNAL OF PROPULSION AND POWER
2005; 21 (1): 158-166
View details for Web of Science ID 000226328400018
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Multi-element high-lift configuration design optimization using viscous continuous adjoint method
JOURNAL OF AIRCRAFT
2004; 41 (5): 1082-1097
View details for Web of Science ID 000224472600012
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High-fidelity aerostructural design optimization of a supersonic business jet
AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC/SDM 43rd Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference
AMER INST AERONAUT ASTRONAUT. 2004: 523–30
View details for Web of Science ID 000221981600010
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The complex-step derivative approximation
ACM TRANSACTIONS ON MATHEMATICAL SOFTWARE
2003; 29 (3): 245-262
View details for Web of Science ID 000184182600001
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Massively parallel simulation of the unsteady flow in an axial turbine stage
JOURNAL OF PROPULSION AND POWER
2002; 18 (2): 465-471
View details for Web of Science ID 000174487300032
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Development and validation of a massively parallel flow solver for turbomachinery flows
JOURNAL OF PROPULSION AND POWER
2001; 17 (3): 659-668
View details for Web of Science ID 000168804600025
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Perspectives on simulation based aerodynamic design
1st International Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics (ICCFD)
SPRINGER-VERLAG BERLIN. 2001: 135–178
View details for Web of Science ID 000173805500009
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Simulation based aerodynamic design
2000 IEEE Aerospace Conference
I E E E. 2000: 55–87
View details for Web of Science ID 000165245400008
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Aerodynamic shape optimization of supersonic aircraft configurations via an adjoint formulation on distributed memory parallel computers
COMPUTERS & FLUIDS
1999; 28 (4-5): 675-700
View details for Web of Science ID 000079732000014
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Constrained multipoint aerodynamic shape optimization using an adjoint formulation and parallel computers, part 2
JOURNAL OF AIRCRAFT
1999; 36 (1): 61-74
View details for Web of Science ID 000078550300008
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Constrained multipoint aerodynamic shape optimization using an adjoint formulation and parallel computers, part 1
JOURNAL OF AIRCRAFT
1999; 36 (1): 51-60
View details for Web of Science ID 000078550300007